Dr. Levin guilty on three counts of sexually assaulting patients

Jury says not guilty on two charges; deadlocked on four others

Dr. Aubrey Levin was convicted Monday night on three counts of sexually assaulting male patients. He remains on bail until sentencing arguments Wednesday.

Photograph by: Stuart Gradon
, Calgary Herald

CALGARY — After being hopelessly deadlocked on all nine counts a day earlier, a jury convicted Dr. Aubrey Levin late Monday on three counts of sexually assaulting patients and acquitted him on two others.

The jury still remained unable to reach a verdict on the other four counts of assaults at the forensic psychiatrist’s office at Peter Lougheed Centre between 1999 and 2010. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Donna Shelley ordered a mistrial on those counts.

The previous night, after deliberating for three full days, the jury informed Shelley that they were unable to reach a verdict on any of the charges and no more deliberating would change their position.

Shelley exhorted the jury Monday morning to make another attempt to reach a verdict in the trial that began four months ago.

The jurors deliberated for another eight hours before finding Levin, 73, guilty of the three charges.

He was found guilty of sexually assaulting RB, the main complainant who videotaped the last two sessions with Levin on March 3 and March 16, 2010, on a spy wrist watch video. The latter video showed Levin fondling RB for nearly 15 minutes.

“For him to step forward and be the catalyst at stopping this abuse, as ironic as it is, the community owes him a gratitude,” Wister said outside court.

“He started the whole ball rolling.”

Wister also praised the jury for sticking with the case that was originally scheduled to be two to four weeks, and being away from their families, as well as Calgary police for taking on the extensive investigation that originally produced 21 complainants.

“We are pleased the jury was able to arrive at verdicts. They assessed the evidence, weighed it and arrived at the decision based on the evidence,” Wister said.

Co-Crown Dallas Sopko said a key to sentencing arguments, which will occur on Wednesday, will have a lot to do with the judge’s findings of the facts on the three victims.

He said during a failed bail revocation hearing that the Crown would seek four to seven years in prison.

Defence lawyer Chris Archer argued the assaults were minor and would garner only 60 to 180 days, depending on the judge’s findings of the facts.

Shelley allowed Levin to remain free until the sentencing arguments.

Meanwhile, Levin looked toward the jurors but showed no visible emotion as the clerk pooled the 11 jurors on each of their verdicts.

Archer had earlier sought yet another mistrial application on the basis of a Tweet from a TV reporter who claimed the five verdicts were guilty. But Shelley rejected the argument, saying there was no evidence the jury’s deliberations were compromised as they have no access to any electronic media.

Archer declined comment following the verdicts.

Levin’s wife, meanwhile, remains under house arrest after allegedly trying to bribe a juror two weeks earlier. She was cited in contempt by the judge and banned from the court or going near any jurors. She had allegedly followed a juror to the CTrain platform nearby and offered an envelope with money to the juror. Erica Levin now faces a contempt hearing on March 5.

Dr. Levin was accused of sexually assaulting nine male patients, many of them court-ordered to see him, in March 2010.

After police charged Levin and issued a media release, the other complainants came forward with allegations dating back to 1999.

Altogether, there were initially 21 complainants, but 11 were withdrawn after a preliminary hearing. Another was withdrawn during the trial.

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